Two teenagers sentenced to at least 15 years for machete murder of boy, 14, on London bus

Two teenagers have been sentenced to at least 15 years for the machete murder of 14-year-old Kelyan Bokassa on a bus.

Kelyan was killed on 7 January in Woolwich, southeast London, in what prosecutors said was a planned attack.

The defendants, now 16, who are too young to be named, stabbed him 27 times with machetes.

They pleaded guilty in May, with one appearing to change his plea at the last moment, and both admitted possessing an offensive weapon.

On Friday, Judge Mark Lucraft KC sentenced the two boys to life in prison, with a minimum term of 15 years and 110 days before they can be considered for parole. One appeared to smile as he was sent down.

The judge noted that during the attack, “the CCTV shows you were smiling,” and said Kelyan’s death was a “senseless loss” of another boy to the “horrors of knife crime“.

Marie Bokassa, Kelyan’s mother, said later that the boys “shattered an entire world” in a statement read outside the court on her behalf.

Mum ‘a broken soul’ after murder

Prosecutor Tom Little KC previously told the Old Bailey that Kelyan was attacked “almost instantaneously” by the boys on the top deck.

The 14-year-old suffered a severed femoral artery during the attack, which happened in the middle of the afternoon in Woolwich Church Street, and died shortly after medics arrived.

Marie Bokassa, Kelyan’s mother, described herself in a victim impact statement on Friday as “a broken soul whose life changed forever the day my child’s life was taken from me by another child”.

“I ask myself what has happened to those two boys that has resulted in that terrible act of violence and I cannot imagine how can they be so angry,” she added.

“What they did was horrific and I do not know what has led them to do this and maybe I will never.”

“That moment of violence may have lasted seconds but its consequences are eternal.”

She then told the court she had spent her son’s 15th birthday at his graveside, and said she is scared to take public transport – particularly the 472 bus route, on which her son was killed.

“I feel judged,” Ms Bokassa said, before adding: “These two young boys took my son’s life without hesitation, they will now have to face the consequences of their actions here today.

“My only hope is they get the help they need before they ever get released into society.”

Mum urges young people to stop carrying knives

Later, in a statement read out on her behalf outside the court, Ms Bokassa said Kelyan’s “life was not theirs to take” and pleaded with young people to stop carrying knives.

“I beg you to stop,” she said, “before you raise that blade, think of your own mother, think of the mothers who will cry every night like I do, who will scream into her pillow, who will walk past her child’s empty room and collapse with grief.

“Don’t let a moment of anger steal your future. Don’t let the streets raise you in a way your mother never would.”

Detective Chief Inspector Sarah Lee, whose team led the Metropolitan Police investigation, added: “The harsh reality in London is that violence disproportionately affects young black men and boys.

“The fact we’re seeing so many teenagers like Kelyan die should be at the forefront of the minds of every politician, every policy maker and everyone who wants better for children growing up in London.

“Without this collective effort, we won’t be able to tackle knife crime in its entirety.”

Speaking after his death, Ms Bokassa said Kelyan had been groomed by gangs from the age of six, and she was not surprised when she found out he was dead.

She said the pair had spent Christmas together, after he was previously in care for several years, but she was concerned he still had “one foot in the streets”.

Ms Bokassa added she had tried to stop him from associating with gangs but did not get support from authorities.

One of the machetes used in the attack was thrown in the River Thames but later recovered.